


Citrus & Cinnamon

by seventhTense



Series: Butterflies With Broken Wings [3]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: (Don't need to read the main fic for this to make sense), Childhood Friends AU, Christmas fic, F/F, Featherman Nerdiness, Fluff, Gift Giving, M/M, Pre-Canon, Shuake as kids, Warm & Snuggly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28457571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhTense/pseuds/seventhTense
Summary: Akira and Goro have been best friends for years, spending most of their days together at Akira's Aunts' house. When Akira finds out that Goro's been treated badly by his foster parents, he and his aunts make it their goal to have the Best Christmas Ever.They go All Out. It's adorable.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: Butterflies With Broken Wings [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822990
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	Citrus & Cinnamon

**Author's Note:**

> Heya all! Some quick notes before the fic; First, yes, this fic takes place in the same AU as [ Like The Moon, We Borrow Our Light, ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227510) my main Childhood Friends AU longfic- BUT, this takes place waaaaaaay before the fic itself, so it can easily be read on its own! All you need to know is that Akira and Goro met and became instant bffs when they were 7, and the rest is explained in the fic! Enjoy the fluff!
> 
> Second; this fic wouldn't exist without [ this very good tweet by @maruitenshi on Twitter, ](https://twitter.com/maruitenshi/status/1336048899098894338?s=19) and the furious storm of inspiration I was swept up by immediately after reading it. Give them some love, they're one of the absolute best artists in the fandom, and their art has brought me so much joy over the years!!!
> 
> Third; the only TW this fic needs is for some implied Parental Abuse right at the start. It starts and ends with Goro having bruises and vaguely explaining why, but if that stuff bugs you, stop reading at "...crashing them both into the grass," then continue at "Akira felt heat rise up inside him."
> 
> That's all! Enjoy the wintry fluff!!!

**Monday, December 21st, 2009**

The raucous din of other kids noisily chasing each other and playing around in the park pressed down on Akira’s heart, heightening the tense, nervous emptiness that had been weighing down on him these past few days. He sat on one of the swings, idly rocking back and forth, fiddling with his bangs and kicking at the bark chips beneath his feet. Waiting. Concentrating. Listening as hard as he could over the whirlwind of noise around him.

In the end, Akira caught what he had been waiting for by chance, coincidence working out perfectly in the way that it always tended to for the two of them. He just so happened to raise his head up and glance around the park at the exact moment that a familiar pair of worn tennis shoes stepped off of the nearby sidewalk and onto the grass. The newcomer took a few steps forwards, looking around nervously, and his and Akira's gazes just so happening to cross and catch, the chaos around them seeming to freeze for an instant-

_“_ _GOROOOOOOO!!!!!!!”_ Akira shouted, his voice and his heart bursting with joy as he shot off of the swing and sprinted across the length of the park towards his friend. Goro froze for just a moment too long, caught off-guard, and Akira tackled him in a big, full-body hug, crashing them both into the grass.

Joy and relief and the warmth of Goro’s body pressed against his flooded through Akira’s being- the rush so overwhelming that he almost missed the rough, louder-than-it-should-have-been grunt of pain from Goro as they both hit the dirt.

Confusion and worry quickly overtaking everything else, Akira pulled back and took a proper look at his best friend. Goro’s face was scrunched up in  discomfort , though it was quickly giving way to the same happiness Akira had been feeling. Looking closer, though, under the now-messed-up collar of Goro’s school uniform, and where his shirt was untucked and hitched up after the tumble, Akira could see the reason behind Goro’s pain.

Bruises. Not too big, not too nasty-looking or discolored, but a number of them were there, purple, blotchy discolorations against Goro’s pale skin, all but hidden to the world by Goro's clothing- almost _intentionally_ so- had Akira's movement not unveiled them.

Akria felt heat rise up inside him, anger and frustration and the burning, impotent need for justice for all the wrongs done to his dearest friend.

Ever since they had met, or at least starting very close to when they had, Goro had spent most of his time living together with Akira at Akira’s Aunts’ house. They had made an arrangement with Goro’s foster parents, and set it up so that Goro spent the vast majority of his time surrounded by the warmth and support and comfort of Aunt Hikaru and Aunt Itsuka’s household.

But even ‘the vast majority of his time’ didn’t mean all of the time. Every so often, maybe two or three times a year, the  Foster Care Agen cy sent someone over to Goro’s  foster  parents’ house to check on him, make sure he was being properly taken care of, check some boxes on a sheet, that sort of thing. So, whenever that time rolled around, Goro would have to go stay with the cold, cruel, selfish jerks who dared to call themselves Goro’s adoptive  family , if only for a few days, until the  agency  inspector was satisfied.

The last check-in of the year had come towards the tail-end of last week, and Goro had left Akira’s house with a glum look on his face early last Wednesday morning.

Clearly, the time between then and now had gone even worse than usual.

Akira clambered off of Goro as delicately as he could, sitting next to his friend and reaching out a hand to help Goro sit up too. “What happened?” he asked in a small voice, trying to sound gentle, probably just sounding as worried and frustrated as he felt.

Goro gave him a small, understanding smile as he took Akira’s hand and pulled himself up- though he didn’t let go of the hand, holding it and idly stroking Akira’s fingers instead. “...my foster parents work in retail,” he explained, somehow sounding very matter-of-fact as he spoke. “This time of the year is pretty stressful on them, as you can expect, so they…” He trailed off, his calm composure starting to crinkle and crumple at the edges, a grim, despairing look in his eye.

Akira’s heart rose up to his throat, and, more carefully this time, he pulled Goro into a warm, tight hug. They stayed like that for a bit, hands clasped together between their chests, their other arms around each other’s shoulders, foreheads pressed against the crook of each other’s necks.

After a few minutes, too anxious to stay inactive any longer, Akira pulled back and got to his feet, pulling Goro up with him. “C’mon,” he said, then turned and started lightly jogging his way back to his Aunts’ house, dragging a surprised Goro along behind him.

When they got home, Akira shifted from a jog into a determined little march, leading Goro inside, down the hallway to Akira’s bedroom, and sitting Goro firmly down on the floor in front of Akira’s small TV. He rummaged around until he found a suitably fluffy blanket, wrapped it around Goro, then turned the TV on and fiddled around with it and the DVD player until one of the old Featherman holiday specials was playing.

When Akira turned around, Goro was looking up at him with slightly confused eyes. Akira just smiled, reached over to ruffle Goro’s hair until Goro was grumpily laughing and swatting Akira away.

“I’m gonna get us some cocoa, I’ll right back,” Akira promised warmly, and with a small smile, Goro nodded, then turned his attention to the TV.

Itsuka and Hikaru were waiting for Akira in the living room, looking curious- then looking absolutely incensed as Akira explained what had happened to Goro.

“Those motherf-” Hikaru growled, Itsuka slapping a hand over her mouth before she could finish whatever she was saying. The two women looked at each other, communicating silently in that way that always vaguely creeped Akira out, but was also really cool at the same time, like his Aunts had a psychic link or something.

After a bit, they both nodded, and Hikaru led the way over to the small little table where the telephone sat, a clunky, plastic thing with big buttons that looked like it had been with them since the 80s or something. Hikaru dialed a number, shared a mischievous look with Itsuka and Akira as it rang.

“Hello? Yes, Mikoshiba-san, this is Kurusu Hikaru, Akira’s aunt- yes, you’re very busy, of course,” she said as the phone connected, making certain to sound perfectly pleasant and charming, all traces of the fury she had been showing just moments ago completely hidden.

“Yes, you see, Akira ran into Goro today, after classes ended, and it seems that the poor boy came down with an awful cold while he was at his classes today,” she gave a big, overdramatic wink to Akira as she smoothly lied, and not for the first time, Akira thought his Aunts were the coolest people in the world. “He’s here at our house right now, and I know we weren't scheduled to pick Goro up until later this week, but-”

The loud, abrasive sound of Goro’s foster parent’s voice blared out of the receiver loud enough that even Akria could almost make out what he was saying- and from the man’s tone, he didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. Akira even heard some laughter, boisterous and cold, in the middle of whatever the jerk said.

Hikaru looked as uncomfortable as she usually did when she had to interact with the Mikoshibas, but there was an edge of an almost smug sense of victory curling the corner of her lips too. “Very well, we’ll take care of him then. Happy holidays to you and your lovely wi-”

More  garrulous  chatter interrupted Hikaru, cutting to silence a few seconds later as the man hung up on her.

There was a beat of silence before Hikaru put the receiver back in its cradle, but when she turned to face Akira and Itsuka properly, there was a big grin on her face-

-she froze for a moment, seeing something behind Akira, and Akira quickly turned around to see Goro, poking his head out of the hallway that led to Akira’s room, fluffy blanket draped around his shoulders, close enough that he would have heard the whole conversation and call. Nervous for no real reason other than being caught, Akira looked back towards Hikaru -

-only to see her grinning even wider now, brash and victorious and proud. She gestured for Goro to come over, then once he had joined the group, she leaned down and wrapped her arms around both Goro and Akira’s shoulders, Itsuka doing the same from the other side. “We,” Hikaru announced, eyes blazing joyously, “Are going to have the best Christmas any of us have ever  _heard of_ .”

The sheer joy and excitement and determination radiating out from his Aunt pulled an equally big grin from Akira- from Goro and Itsuka too, when Akria looked. Laughing as she did so, Itsuka let out a raucous, wordless cheer, Akira and Goro echoing it a moment later, throwing their hands up in the air.

This was going to be awesome.

For the next several days, the hose was a chaotic, bustling, wonderful mess. The last day of school before winter break came quickly, so Akira and Goro spent most of their time afterwards in Akira’s room, wrapped in fluffy blankets and alternating between watching anime and chugging through all the RPGs they had started over the course of the year but never finished.

Whenever they left the comfort of Akira’s room, though, they were met with an overwhelming storm of activity. Hikaru had torn through all the Christmas decorations she could find in the garage and in the storage sheds she had rented out for the stuff her parents had left her when they passed, and now the house was a mess of garish, often terribly clashing, always awesome decorations of every shape and size. Colorful, shiny wreaths and garlands hung on every door and wall, the picture-frames on the tables and shelves were now surrounded with dozens of little Santa figurines of all sorts, little ceramic snowy villages covered  every unoccupied surface,  and almost everywhere Akira looked, there were strings of colored lights stretching across the room, bathing everything in a warm, festive glow.

When they weren’t decorating the hell out of the place, the Aunts were just as busy in their kitchen, using the excuse of the holidays to try out every last weird, cool, delicious recipe they could think of cooking. Breakfasts consisted of different kinds of flavored pancakes and waffles, always with a new piping-hot, tasty twist on cider or cocoa that made Akira feel warm all over. Dinners and lunches were filled with different kinds of breads, poached fish and bowls of fried veggies with bits of bacon, cheese-stuffed hamburg steaks and more types of cookies and cakes and loafs of sugary, fruit-filled treats than Akira had even known existed.

But the best part of all of it was seeing Goro’s reaction to the Aunts’ festive frenzy. Every time a new set of decorations arrived, or a new, creative, weirdly delicious dish was put in front of him, Goro’s eyes would go all wide and sparkly, awed and amazed and excited and so, so happy that Akira felt his heart swell fit to bursting. It was easily the best time Akira had had in his whole life so far, clearly the best Goro had yet too. Warm and soft and sweet and perfect.

When the night of Christmas Eve finally arrived, the whole family was snuggled up together on the couch, watching the cheesy old claymation Christmas movies from America that Itsuka always insisted they watch every year. Goro and Akira were cuddled up together, Itsuka and Hikaru on either side of them, and as the tinny, silly songs played on, Akira felt his eyelids start to droop, too warm and comfortable to resist the sleepiness washing over him.

Chuckling warmly, his Aunts clicked the movie off and scooped Akira and Goro up in their arms, carrying them to Akira’s bedroom- and normally Akira would complain at being treated like a baby like this, but man, he really was just too tired to even bother to do much more than vaguely grumble as he and Goro were tucked into bed. His aunt’s softly wished the two of them a merry Christmas, then closed the door.

...but somehow, now that he was in his bed, properly ‘waiting for Christmas morning,’ Akira just couldn’t get to sleep, the anticipation buzzing through his body and waking his brain right back up. He sighed, turned over-

-and saw Goro’s maroon eyes staring right back at him, just as awake as Akira was. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then burst out into hushed snickers. “Too excited to sleep?” Akira whispered, probably unnecessarily.

“Mhm,” Goro nodded, a big smile brightening his face even in the dark of the room. He looked around, then got a sneaky, scheming look on his face. “...wanna go see if we can catch Santa in the act?” 

Akira rolled his eyes, grinning. Goro’s penchant for Detective stuff came out at the weirdest times. Still, he nodded all the same. “Yeah! We’ll catch him red-handed, and, uh… then I guess let him go about his business?”

Goro laughed softly, starting to climb out of the bed. “He’s definitely guilty of a couple crimes at least, but I guess it can be okay to do crimes sometimes.”

Together, moving very quietly, tip-toeing around the parts of the floor that they knew tended to creak when stepped on, Goro and Akira made their way across the room and slowly, silently opened the door. The house was mostly darkened at this point in the night, but Hikaru and Itsuka had helped them set up the living room for any cookie-and-milk-loving visitors earlier that night, leaving a few colored lights on so Santa didn't trip over anything, and so the boys crept down the hall in the direction of the colored glow, to see if their bait had drawn any takers.

Much to Akira’s surprise and wonder, it had. Right in front of the small table where they left their plate of treats stood a red-and-white-dressed figure, its back towards the hallway where Akira and Goro were crouched-

Wait, no… there were  _two_ figures in red and white, bustling about in front of the cookies…

...two  _very familiar looking_ figures…

“ _Ohoho_ Mrs. Claus,” said an incredibly familiar voice, all bouncy and silly-sounding but still instantly recognizable. “These children left out such tasty treats for us this year!”

“They’d better be tasty, Mrs. Claus,” the second Santa said, equally familiar. “I get the feeling that somebody spent a lot of time in the kitchen making sure they were absolutely perfect.”

The first Santa, shorter and with a higher voice, leaned over and gave the taller, slightly passive-aggressive Santa a kiss on the cheek. “They’re delicious, honey. Did you see how happy the boys were?”

“Oh my g- don’t drop character Itsuka, honestly!” huffed the taller Santa, very obviously flustered. The shorter Santa giggled, and tall Santa huffed again, then wrapped her arms around the shorter Santa’s shoulders. “We know the boys were happy. I’m much more curious to see if a certain jolly old woman found them… satisfactory~”

The shorter Santa blushed bright enough that Akira could see it through her fake beard, grinned wide enough that her teeth gleamed in the bright Christmas lights. “Who are you callin’ old, punk?” she grumped, her voice too high to sound punkish, her tone too happy to sound grumpy.

The taller Santa pulled the shorter one even closer, and Akira looked over his shoulder to exchange a nervous glance with Goro. That was more than enough of that sappy junk for one night. As one, they turned around and crept right back to their room, the door closing just as the Santas started getting particularly giggly.

“...well,” Goro sighed, once they were both back on the bed, sitting cross-legged, leaning against their pillows. “Now what?”

“Yeah…” Akira agreed, still way too wired to get back to sleep, even after that… display. Adults were so weird. The two boys sat in silence for a bit, idly staring up at the dark ceiling, or nudging the curtains aside to stare out the window- then Akria got an idea.

“...y’know, I still have my present for you in here,” he started, slowly. Goro raised his eyebrows, clearly seeing where this was going. “We could give each other our presents now, then open our Aunts’ stuff in the morning.”

Goro put his fingers to his chin in that cute, goofy little thoughtful-detective-pose of his for a few seconds, then nodded. “I don’t see why not. I’ve got mine in here too, gimmie a second.”

The boys rummaged around the room, Akira under the bed, Goro in his big, bulky backpack, then climbed back up onto the bed, brightly wrapped gifts in their hands. Akira was holding a large, bulky, misshapen present, while Goro’s was smaller, much neater and tightly wrapped. They paused for a moment, sitting opposite one another, neither sure who should go first, then Akira just chuckled and handed his over to Goro. “Here, you first!”

Goro blushed but nodded, putting his package off to the side and taking the present. It took a minute or two to unwrap, just because Akira had sort of made up for how messy the wrapping paper was by just putting a whole lot of tape all over the thing, but eventually Goro got the present out.

With both hands, Goro held up large, soft-looking, sort of messily-knitted, garishly ugly Christmas sweater. It was designed with a sort of wintry argyle pattern, lots of ice-blue and soft white diamonds, with a big light-grey stripe running around the middle.

Akira couldn’t see it from where he sat, but he knew that on the front of the sweater, right in the middle of the grey stripe, were two messily-knitted chibi-style figures, one with Goro’s neat brown hair, one with Akira’s messy black curls, both dressed warm and snug and holding hands in what was supposed to be snow, with big smiles on their faces.

“I got Itsuka and Hikaru to teach me how to knit over the last month or two,” Akira explained. “With how dorky and proper you like to dress, I thought a big Christmas sweater would be perfect! Uhm, well, it’s not “perfect,” I messed up a lot, but…”

Even as Akira’s self-doubt started to creep up, he saw Goro slowly lower the sweater into his lap, wearing a big, messy, watery smile behind it. He sniffed loudly, reached up and wiped his eyes and nose. “I-it’s perfect, Akira. Thank you.”

Self-doubt was instantly washed away by victorious joy, and Akira leaned forwards to give Goro a big, long hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes, at least until Goro stopped getting Akira’s shoulder wet, then got back into position, Goro neatly folding the sweater and setting it off to the side for the moment. He picked up his own tightly-wrapped gift, and handed it over to Akira with a simple, “Here.”

Anticipation and curiosity bubbling up inside, Akira carefully unwrapped the gift, moving slowly at first so as to not mess up the gift itself, then a bit faster when he realized that the wrapping paper was just covering a thin cardboard box, the real gift inside.

Once enough wrapping paper was off so that Akira could open the box,  he slid off the box's lid , and inside…

“I’m not the best artist,” Goro confessed, already sounding embarrassed. “But I remembered how much you liked that drawing I did of the Feather Rangers we made up over the summer, so…”

Akira was speechless, stunned silent. Inside the box, carefully bound, the cover laminated, was a small book- or rather, a small volume of manga, the cover drawn in Goro’s distinctive, adorable-but-still-really-seriously-good-in-Akira’s-opinion style. On the cover stood Akira and Goro’s made-up Featherman characters, standing tall and proud alongside the rest of the show’s cast.

It took a while before Akira could tear his eyes away, looking between the book and Goro with a wide-eyed, amazed expression, unable to form words. Goro was looking more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by, murmured. “I-it’s just a few comics, really, I know it isn’t-”

“ _GORO THIS IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”_ Akira practically shouted, only lowering his volume enough so that they wouldn’t get caught when Goro panickedly shoved his hands over Akira’s mouth. At something a bit closer to a whisper, Akria tried again. “ _It’s so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!_ I cant believe you- how long did you work on this, oh my god!!!!!!!!!”

Goro was bright red now, covering his own face this time. “P-pretty much since the summer… It really isn-”

But Akira just cut Goro off with a wordless, incredibly excited noise, and started scooting over on the bed, moving until he and Goro were sitting next to each other, so they could read the manga at the same time. That only embarrassed Goro more, way too flustered to look at his own art, but Akira insisted, wrapping an arm around Goro’s shoulders and pulling him back every time he tried to lean away or cover his eyes, and eventually they started to read.

The book was way longer and deeper than Akira could have expected, easily the length of a volume of actual professional manga- though he _should_ have expected that, honestly; pick up any dictionary and you’d find Goro’s picture right next to the entry for ‘Overachiever.’

It was  _good_ too, the art and the writing exciting and warm and thrilling… The story was more or less a realized version of the scenarios the two of them would play out in the park and in Akira’s backyard over the summer;  him and Goro living a humdrum, everyday life, then by chance running into a n Infinibug Aberrant , then magically discovering and unleashing their Feather transformations at the last second, Goro becoming Feather Red Robin, Akira becoming Feather Black Crow.

When Akira got to that part, Goro had to slap a hand over his mouth again to stop him from hooting and hollering loud enough to wake up the whole damn neighborhood, he was so hyped up. It was more or less like that for the next several hours, Akira getting excited as hell when a new, awesome thing happened in Goro’s manga, (the two of tthem getting discovered and recruited by the canon Featherman team, meeting and butting heads with the canon Feather Red and Black, saving them from an overpowered monster and so on), then the two of them spending nearly an hour after each chapter discussing the plot and any and every potential future adventure they could come up with.

At some point- Akira didn’t remember when, but it was probably pretty close to morning- they both passed out, Akira only waking up an undetermined amount of time later thanks to a gentle prodding at his arm.

He blinked his eyes open blearily, feeling a familiar weight over half of his body, and a lighter, more delicate weight on his chest. He looked down to see Goro all cuddled up and clinging to him, and above his head, Goro’s manga, splayed open as if they had fallen asleep in the middle of reading it.

Embarrassed, but happy at the same time, Akira delicately picked up the book and closed it, moving it over to where the sweater Akira had given Goro was already folded up neatly on his bedside table-

-and seeing Aunt Hikaru and Itsuka standing next to the bed nearby.

Akira let out a yelp of alarm, jumped in surprise, only to get swatted at by Goro and giggled at by his Aunts. He pouted until Goro roused himself from sleep a few seconds later, looked up, saw Akira’s aunts, and did the exact same thing, yipping like a puppy and jolting straight up.

His aunts only laughed harder. Honestly…

“Come on and greet the day, boys,” Hikaru teased as her giggles died down, a sardonic smirk on her face. “You’re awake just in time for _lunch_.”

“Lunch?!” Akira squawked, twisting around to look at his clock- yep, it was already half past noon. 

“We did try to wake you this morning,” Itsuka said, nicer but still smirking a little. “But you two were clinging so tightly together... every time we tried to shake one of your shoulders, the other one would swat our hands away before we could.”

Akira felt his face practically glowing red now, and could see the same blush on Goro out of the corner of his eye- though it faded when Hikaru reached over and ruffled both of their bedheads a second later. “C’mon, we’ll make some brunch-type stuff for you sleepyheads, then we’ll do Christmas gifts properly, alright?”

That was enough to wash away Akira’s embarrassment with excitement, and with a fervent nod, the two boys bounded out of bed and started getting ready for the day.

Brunch was delicious, lots of french toast and bacon and eggs and grilled fish and Itsuka's special miso soup, and the gifts were even better, Goro and Akira both getting all the toys and games they had had their eyes on all year. It honestly shocked Akira how observant his Aunts were to the stuff the two of them took an interest in, and it practically drove Goro to messy, happy tears- probably would have gotten him full-on weeping if he hadn’t already gone through a couple Christmases with them over the past few years.

Tears or not, the whole family still bunched up close together, a big family hug that made Akira feel warm and safe and happy in every part of his body- and judging by  his big, wobbly grin, made  G oro feel the exact same way.

They spent the rest of the day bundled up together on the couch, watching a mix of the ‘classic’ Christmas movies Itsuka and Hikaru loved, as well as some of the more modern ones that Akria and Goro had seen ads for. Christmas dinner was lovely, a bunch of fancy, weird foods that Akira had never even heard of, but that Itsuka and Hikaru had apparently been dying to try cooking. It was all delicious, and Akira felt like a blimp afterwards.

As soon as his and Goro’s stomachs had deflated a bit, though, the excited energy from the rest of the day all came back at once, and they raced out into the backyard, wanting to take advantage of the snowfall over the last few days and have one of their yearly snowball fights.

The competition was just as fierce as it always was, the two of them diving around and chucking whatever handfuls of snow they could manage to grab, but all throughout, neither Akira or Goro stopped smiling, grinning, laughing up a storm even for a moment.

In the middle of a dive for more ammo, Akira happened to glance over towards Goro at just the right moment; framed by the warm, homey light glowing out from the house’s windows, chestnut hair flared out like halo around him, snow dusting his cheeks and wearing the biggest grin Akira had ever seen, big enough to probably make Goro’s cheeks ache for the rest of the night.

He had felt this way for a long time, but that moment made the feeling pang in Akira’s chest all the harder; he wanted more than anything to make Goro smile, just like that, for the rest of this year, and for every Christmas to come.

\---

**Five Years Later**

**Thursday, December 25** **th** **, 2014**

Snuggled together on their couch, under an old, well-loved blanket they had borrowed from Sojiro, in their apartment in Yongen-Jaya, Akira and Goro watched another robot explode into bright, red-and-green lights on the TV.

Christmas-hating Robots were the theme for this year’s Featherman Holiday Special, for some bizarre reason. Akira had thought it a pretty weird premise, even as far as typical monster-of-the-week-style episodes of the current run of Featherman went, and the writing and acting for the episode were pretty par-for-the-course so far, nothing too special in his eyes.

But that said…

Not for the first time since the episode started, Akira glanced over to his left, gazing over at Goro’s face, not a foot away. He was so,  _so_ hooked, eyes wide and lips parted, a hand gripping the arm of Akira’s sweater tightly, jerking this way and that when one of the Featherman got hit, or when they did an especially cool kick combo.

Akira couldn’t help but grin at that; Goro’s precious, all-too-rare childish side, just like when they were kids. Beautiful and perfect. He returned his gaze to the TV quickly, so Goro wouldn’t catch sight of him staring and get all embarrassed.

...though, while he didn’t keep staring, Akira did feel a swell of boldness, of bravery fill his heart, and underneath the blanket, he crept his hand over to Goro’s, held it softly. Goro froze for a moment, then slowly held Akira’s hand back, lacing their fingers together and shifting to snuggle even closer up against his side- or as close as Goro could when he was still twitching around during the fight scenes.

Akira scooted closer too, his heart warm as a roaring fire, full as his stomach was after the Christmas dinner they had shared with Sojiro, Wakaba and Futaba earlier that evening, as whole and as safe and as comfortable as it had been every year around this time, ever since  he and Goro had made a home for themselves here in the City. 

As one of the robots revealed itself to be a huge Aberrant in disguise, Akira felt a wonderful certainty settle in his heart; impossible to say why, no real rhyme or reason behind it, but he knew in the core of his being that now and for every Christmas that came from here on out, year after year, his and Goro’s hearts would only grow closer, warmer, enough so to melt all the snow in Tokyo.

As one, the two boys snuggled closer together, leaned their heads against one another, and watched the show.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya! Happy Holidays and an even Happier (fingers crossed) New Year to y'all!!! 
> 
> Title comes from the song "Cinnamon," by Hayley Williams. The song itself doesn't have much of anything to do with the fic, but I made the choice to make all the titles for fics in this AU come from Paramore or Paramore-related songs, and man, it's real hard finding even a single soft, fluffy lyric in those folks' discography, much less a warm, comfy, wintry one! But here we are.
> 
> This fic was written in some rough times for me personally, but I'm really happy with how it came out! Akira and Goro both deserve to have some pure, well-cared-for joy in their lives, and I aim to give them as much of it as my fingers can physically tap into being! 
> 
> Not a whole lot of notes here, this was just a nice, fluffy time X}D Credit and kudos and unending respect once again to [ @maruitenshi on Twitter, ](https://twitter.com/maruitenshi) they are amazing and you should follow them if you don't already!!!! 
> 
> If you enjoyed this and want to keep up-to-date with the rest of my writing, or if you just want to see me slowly lose my mind trying to understand how the mechanics in granblue work (for real this time, i'm really going to learn wtf is going on in this frigging game, i swear), my Twitter is [ @SevventhSteen! ](https://twitter.com/SevventhSteen)
> 
> Here's hoping you're finding so much joy this winter, and here's hoping exponentially harder that we all find exponentially-exponentially more joy in 2021! See y'all soon!!!


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